1. Technical Field
The present invention concerns a ship, in particular a cargo ship, having an energy supply system. The invention further concerns an energy supply system for a ship, in particular a cargo ship. The invention further concerns a method of controlling an energy supply system of a ship.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ships of the aforementioned kind usually take electrical energy from an on-board energy supply system. In known ships the energy supply system has one or more diesel-electric systems which convert a mechanically produced power into electrical energy. The expression diesel-electric system is used to denote a system which is adapted to generate electrical energy and which has a (diesel) internal combustion engine for producing mechanical power, coupled to a generator for generating electrical energy.
On ships of the kind set forth in the opening part of this specification the on-board network, communication devices, auxiliary or main drives are supplied with electrical energy by means of the energy supply system.
DE 10 2005 028 447 to the present applicant discloses a ship having a screw body driven by an electric motor and electrically driven transverse thruster rudders. In addition that publication provides a plurality of Magnus rotors on the ship, which additionally provide drive force and are also driven by means of electric motors. Magnus rotors are also referred to as Flettner rotors or sailing rotors.
As further general state of the art attention is to be directed to DE 34 26 333 C2, JP 04100799 A, U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,730, WO 00/06450 A1, GB 2 311 502 A and EP 2 243 699 A1, and the article ‘Wartungskonzept für moderne Dieselmotoren’ from the Handbuch der Werften, Prof Dr-Ing H Keil, 1998, pages 279-280.
The provision of a reliably operating energy supply is of great significance for operation of a ship of the kind set forth in the opening part of this specification. By virtue of continuous use the diesel-electric systems are subjected to wear which cannot be avoided and, after a given operating time has been reached, have to be regularly maintained. While maintenance operations are being performed either operation of the ship is severely impaired or (generally) it is not possible as the ship must be in a shipyard or at any event a port in order to be maintained. If minor maintenance operations are to be carried out, they can admittedly be performed on board the ship and under some circumstances even while a ship is sailing. It will be noted however that in such cases a maintenance crew must also be carried on board, and that also causes significant costs.
The maintenance complication and expenditure to be incurred in relation to known ships is found to be a disadvantage in the state of the art.